Sunday, October 04, 2015

I saw Selma recently with wifey from the comfort of our home. My wife is younger and from the South so she loves to watch historical movies like this that deal with the civil rights struggle. She says that they make her angry (this one was no exception), but she admits that it's a necessary evil in learning to better understand the history of her country.

Anyway, if you know the history of voting rights in the South you will understand what the movie Selma was all about. Now, sadly, history is repeating itself in the "Land Of Dixie".

"Although the 2016 presidential election is still more than a year away, Americans are already inundated with campaign promises and a flurry of candidates. But Alabama residents have more to worry about than simply picking a party.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency announced this week that it is closing 31 satellite DMV offices owing to budget cuts. That will leave 28 counties in the state without a place for residents to get the government-issued photo IDs they need to vote. Although it’s a statewide cut, the effects of the shutdown will be felt disproportionately.

“Depending on which counties you count as being in Alabama’s Black Belt, either 12 or 15 Black Belt counties soon won’t have a place to get a driver’s license,” wrote Alabama columnist Kyle Whitmore. “Counties where some of the state’s poorest live. Counties that are majority African American.”

In 2014, Alabama became one of 17 states that require a government-issued photo ID—driver’s license being the most common—in order to cast a ballot. When the measure was under consideration back in 2011, the American Civil Liberties Union lobbied against it, concerned that requiring photo IDs would disenfranchise black voters. Proponents of the measure said strict ID laws would prevent voter fraud. The ACLU argued that as more black residents took public transportation than white residents (62 percent versus 34 percent), black residents were less likely to already have the driver’s license they would need to vote.

Now, there will be fewer places to obtain the IDs needed to participate in the country’s democracy. The newly shuttered offices accounted for 5 percent of the state’s driver’s license transactions, according to the ALEA. Authorities also proposed sending out mobile I.D. vans and crews to affected counties. But rights activists argue that the vans are poorly publicized, and that any sort of restriction is problematic." [Source]

I suspect that there will be more of these types of cuts to come in states with strict voter ID laws that happen to have a large black population. We could see this okey -doke coming from a mile away: Pass stricter laws requiring voter identification, and close the very places that make these cards available to the public.

Alabama joins states like Texas that are making it hard for people of color because of either racism, politics, or both. I personally suspect the latter.

"Two years ago, Alabama would have needed federal approval to make such a change. A 2013 Supreme Court decision invalidated sections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that required states well known for discrimination, including Alabama, be overseen by the federal government to implement any laws that could impact voting. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority decision that “our country has changed,”'

43 comments:

"...she admits that it's a necessary evil in learning to better understand the history of her country."

Ahh Selma, where the blacks took over and everyone lived happily ever after. Or not.

Have you seen the real Selma lately?

When you really gain an understanding of the history of your country, the "Civil Rights" movement isn't so black and white, so to speak. There was a reason for Jim Crow laws, for segregation, and for maintaining white control that benefited everybody. While there are many individual blacks quite capable of functioning in a civilized society, it will be many, many years before blacks as a people will be able to maintain civilization.

One would have thought there might have been a way to guarantee blacks the dignity they deserved without completely ruining the country. But that wasn't the real purpose after all, was it?

If Rosa Parks would have stayed in the back of the bus, you wouldn't need bus driver shields today, and if the white power structure had not been overthrown in Selma and countless other cities, they wouldn't have crumbled into violent hell-holes where nobody wants to live.

It says something about their agenda that they feel they have to cheat in order to win. Poltroonery at its finest. And to the above troll: When, then, are white people going to be able to "maintain civilization"? Or for that matter, any people at all?

People that drop bombs on other people are so so civilized. Funny how USA and Russia can speak to each other to avoid bumping into each other during their (both) bombing runs, but can't communicate with the many boogie men that receive these bombs.

The more things change. Just saw the Black Panthers movie with Mrs. X tonight and you can hear some of the same language used to describe them that is being used to describe the BLM movement. I bet brotha Panther can speak more eloquently on this matter.

PilotX said...The more things change. Just saw the Black Panthers movie with Mrs. X tonight and you can hear some of the same language used to describe them that is being used to describe the BLM movement.--

Fake history still being made today, with CNN changing the complexion of their broadcast story photos of the Oregon shooter to make him look white, when we all know he is black as Obama. All of his social media accounts have been shoved down the memory hole as well.

"Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority decision that “our country has changed,”'"

Justice Roberts doesn't understand history and should go see "The Black Panthers". But then again, maybe he did, and that was why the Court of the Land made the decision that would give the states and the GOP the Power to discriminate and disenfranchise Black voters.

The Supreme Court is no longer a Supreme Court for the people. Thanks to Justice Roberts along with some other Justices, The Supreme Court is for 'Whites Only'.

"Trying to surpress the vote of ANYONE is traitorous, pure and simple. As un-American as you can get."

In Virginia and Ohio, military and overseas ballots have fallen 70 percent since 2008, according to the Military Voter Protection Project. Ohio received only 9,700 ballots in September, whereas in September 2008, it received 32,000. So, why aren’t soldiers voting? In many cases they simply can’t, and they have their commander in chief, President Obama, to blame.

Hundreds of thousands of our uniformed personnel have been shut out of the process, and we can thank the Obama administration and even the Obama campaign for this tragedy. After poor turnout in 2008, Congress passed the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (Move) Act to ensure that all military are provided with the opportunity to vote. The act put standards in place, such as mailing absentee ballots no later than 45 days before an election and requiring installation voting assistance offices to be built at most military bases and posts.

The Obama administration should be prosecuted for knowingly and willingly violating the Move Act, as well as the Voting Rights Act.

Anonymous Control the Goyem said..."Fake history still being made today, with CNN changing the complexion of their broadcast story photos of the Oregon shooter to make him look white, when we all know he is black as Obama. All of his social media accounts have been shoved down the memory hole as well."

Van Jones said that no two black teens would have shot up Columbine. Well now a white black guy has shot up a community college. And a black guy in Virginia shot two ex coworkers in cold blood. What say yea now Van. No one is talking about the Oregon shooter being a white black guy. It was racism both times.

Van Jones said that no two black teens would have shot up Columbine. Well now a white black guy has shot up a community college. And a black guy in Virginia shot two ex coworkers in cold blood. What say yea now Van. No one is talking about the Oregon shooter being a white black guy. It was racism both times.

"Fake history still being made today, with CNN changing the complexion of their broadcast story photos of the Oregon shooter to make him look white, when we all know he is black as Obama. All of his social media accounts have been shoved down the memory hole as well."

Get a grip. All biracial people do not look like President Obama. Lots of black people in the U.S. have quite a lot of white ancestry already, so if they have a kid with a white person, the child may end up looking mostly white.

There's no evil media conspiracy to "lighten" the shooter's appearance.

"Van Jones said that no two black teens would have shot up Columbine. Well now a white black guy has shot up a community college. And a black guy in Virginia shot two ex coworkers in cold blood. What say yea now Van. No one is talking about the Oregon shooter being a white black guy. It was racism both times."

Van Jones was wrong.

People need to knock off the racial point-scoring about these sorts of mass shootings. Some people of color are violently insane. And some of those insane people of color get ahold of guns and do horrific things with them, just like white folks do. (See: Aaron Alexis, who killed 13 random people at the Washington Navy Yard because the voices in his head told him to.)

Hell, in this case, the shooter's mama was a black female gun nut with a huge arsenal of weaponry for her son to use. You don't see that every day, but it was true in this case.

Anon 7:21-25, I agree with your position. I wonder how big is the 'financial incentive NOT to solve the problem'? Dividing this number by the number of lives lost due to lack of gun control, would probably define, in dollars, the value of human life, for every politician that opposes Gun Reform.

This politician can't value a fetus more than an existing human, for the sake of political power.

"Are you suggesting, the citizens of Chicago simply shoot back? The Chicago law enforcement/justice system cannot be trusted to keep the communities safe?"

No, he is suggesting that he needs the ability to shoot back at the government when they attempt to enforce these things called "laws," which are created by people called "legislators," who are voted for under a system called "democracy."

He is not a fan of democracy because most other people do not share his loony-tunes opinions and tend to vote for things he doesn't like.

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